The United Nations pressed Sudan’s warring factions on Wednesday to guarantee safe passage of humanitarian aid after six trucks were looted and air strikes in the capital undermined a supposed truce.
United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said he hoped to have face-to-face meetings with Sudan’s warring parties within two to three days to secure guarantees from them for aid convoys to deliver relief supplies.
The meeting could take place in Khartoum, the capital, or another location, Griffiths told Reuters in a phone interview from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, following a visit to Port Sudan intended to plan a large-scale relief operation.
“It’s important to me that we meet physically, face-to-face to discuss this, because we need it to be a public, accountable moment,” he said.
Latest from Khartoum on the Sudan crisis:
The UN has warned that fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted on April15, risks causing a humanitarian catastrophe that could spill into other countries.
Sudan said on Tuesday that 550 people had died, with another 4,926 wounded, so far in the conflict.
Air strikes were heard in Khartoum and the adjoining cities of Omdurman and Bahri on Wednesday, even as the two sides had agreed to extend a series of shaky and broken truces for a further seven days from Thursday.
In Khartoum, millions were still trying to shelter from open warfare between an army using air strikes and heavy artillery and RSF forces embedded in residential neighbourhoods.
Most hospitals were out of service and many areas were without power and water as supplies of food and fuel dwindled.
